This inspection was announced and took place on 24 May 2017 and 7 June 2017. The provider was given 48 hours’ notice because the location provides a personal care service for younger adults who are often out during the day. We needed to make sure the registered manager and their staff team were available to meet with us. We also wanted to meet with people who used the service, their families and members of their staff team to hear their views about the service.

Beyond Limits (Plymouth) provides a supported living service to people living in their own homes. The service specialises in providing ‘bespoke’ packages of care for adults with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders, mental illness, or physical disabilities. At the time of this inspection they provided a service to nine people. This was the first inspection of this service at the present address. Beyond Limits (Plymouth) moved to the current premises in 2016, when the location was re-registered.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People who used the service, relatives, professionals and staff praised the providers and management team for their ethos, and their determination to make a positive difference to people’s lives. There was a very strong emphasis on providing a service that was person-centred and tailored to the person’s individual needs and wishes. We heard stories of how people’s lives had been transformed since they began using the service. The provider told us they aimed to ‘wrap the service around people’. They carefully assessed people’s needs before the service began. They worked with people, their families and professionals to help them draw up and agree a plan setting out how the person’s needs would be met.

People were involved in choosing and recruiting their staff team and the provider and management team constantly monitored the person’s satisfaction with the service to ensure the staff team continued to match their needs. A relative told us “She is thriving with them.” Another relative told us “There has been progress. From what he was like before he came here to what he is now there has been progress. Small steps.” They also said “We are very pleased with the staff he has.” They told us the staff were well trained and understood the person’s needs fully, saying “Staff can ‘read’ him”

People received a service that was safe. Staff were carefully checked to ensure they were suitable for the post. Staff knew how to keep people safe and protect them from the risk of harm or abuse. There were sufficient staff employed to meet people’s complex needs and to care for them safely.

People received highly personalised and effective support from the service to enable them to gain independence and remain in good health. Staff received training and support to enable them to provide an effective service to the people they supported. Staff told us they felt well-supported. Staff morale was high and staff turnover was lower than other similar services we compared them with. Comments from staff included “I admire and am proud to be a part of a company who are extremely person-centred, with a great ethos. A company that really makes an effort to support their staff, as well as they support their clients” and “I’ve felt well supported by them from an employee point of view and I feel they provide a very good service for the person I support.”

The service supported people to take positive risks. Support plans contained detailed assessments of each known risk to individuals, and there were clear instructions to staff on the procedures they must follow to reduce the risks where possible. Support plans included d